The NRA is backtracking on a decision to tighten evacuation standards in case of a nuclear accident. Earlier this month, an expert panel advised the agency to evacuate residents within 5 km of a nuclear plant at the first sign of a nuclear emergency, and to evacuate those between 5 and 30 km as soon as radiation levels reached 500 microsieverts per hour. Temporary evacuations would be declared within a week if radiation levels hit 20 microsieverts per hour. The proposed limits are stricter than those of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which requires evacuation when radiation levels reach 1,000 microsieverts per hour. However, some experts on the panel protested the decision, and the agency is now reviewing the standards.

Nuclear Waste Decontamination and Disposal

The Environment Ministry announced last week that efforts to find places to store nuclear waste are behind schedule, and will probably not be completed by March, the original deadline for selecting locations. The Ministry is just now accepting applications from vendors who will conduct environmental assessments of sites, but those tests are expected to take several months. Meanwhile, municipal officials and local residents continue to protest hosting the sites, expressing concern about radiation hazards and contamination. (Source: NHK)

Tohoku Electric continues to deny that the Higashidori faults are active. However, Kunihiko Shimazaki, the NRA Commissioner who headed a panel of five seismic experts tasked with studying the fault lines, said, “It is our shared understanding that [Tohoku’s] argument that they are not active faults is totally unacceptable.” He added, “The old sketches [provided by Tohoku] lack credibility...There were no facts that made us correct the recognition we reached earlier.” Other plants in the region may now be subject to additional surveys, in order to determine whether or not they sit atop seismically active areas. In Japan, it is illegal to operate a reactor that runs directly over an active fault.

If it were not for Greenpeace we would be in the dark about what is going on in Japan. I can not say enough about the information received twice a wee...

If it were not for Greenpeace we would be in the dark about what is going on in Japan. I can not say enough about the information received twice a week. Thank you very much Greenpeace and Ms. McCann. Very, very informative.